Political donor Ed Buck was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the fatal overdoses of two men on Thursday.
According to authorities, Buck, 67, preyed on vulnerable men and provided them with drugs and cash in exchange for sex. In 2017 and 2019, two of the victims, Gemmel Moore and Timothy Dean, were found dead at Buck’s West Hollywood home. It was later determined that the two victims died from methamphetamine injections administered by Buck.
Buck was finally apprehended in September 2019 after reportedly injecting another person with back-to-back methamphetamine injections. Dane Brown, the victim, is said to have overdosed twice yet survived the ordeal.
The court found Buck guilty of nine felonies, including methamphetamine distribution, prostitution, and maintaining a drug-involved premise, in July 2021.
“Buck used his money and privilege to exploit the wealth and power imbalances between himself and his victims, who were unhoused, destitute, and struggling with addiction,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Chelsea Norell said in a court filing. “He spent thousands of dollars on drugs and party and play sessions that destroyed lives and bred insidious addictions […] Buck’s lack of remorse is aptly captured in one image: As he was hiding out in a hotel, evading arrest for Gemmel Moore’s death, he was injecting Dane Brown, another young Black man, with back-to-back slams of methamphetamine.”
Buck’s lawyer announced he intends to appeal the “excessive sentence.”
“The deaths were tragic. His being charged and convicted was tragic. The sentence was tragic,” his attorney, Mark J. Werksman, said after the sentencing, as reported by the New York Times. “None of this should’ve happened.”
